Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I welcome the Bill in the sense that it updates, consolidates and modernises legislation on exploration and the extraction of minerals. It is welcome that it provides for the continuing vesting in the Minister of the exclusive right to work minerals, subject to certain exceptions. It also provides for the remediation of abandoned mines, which I welcome, and for the prosecution of summary offences. It also deals with compensation and its calculation and so on.

The Bill provides that royalty rates will be set by the Minister, as one or two other speakers mentioned. It provides that a licence is granted for eight years, about which I have some questions. It is welcome that the Bill aims to implement international environmental legal obligations by providing for public participation and access to justice provisions for members of the public, taking account of the Aarhus Convention. People have fought for years for the convention to be implemented in domestic legislation. I welcome that and the procedural steps taken, although I wonder if it is strong enough. I will come back to this issue through amendments on Committee Stage to ensure it will be fully implemented to have the maximum rights to allow people participate.

While we are no experts in the Dáil, I wonder if we should rewrite our geography classes and tell teachers the same. The Minister of State is younger than me, but as most of us grew up we were told constantly that we had no resources in this country. I have taken great trouble to read the Bill digest. I thank those who prepared it and put a great deal of work into it. It is heart-inspiring to see the amount of our natural resources, yet we have proceeded as a country that has none. The ones we thought we had in County Mayo we sold and we learned no lessons from it. The best part of the Bill is to come on Committee Stage in the form of an acknowledgement that the country is rich in resources. That message has to go out and we have to begin to act like a country that is rich in natural resources.

Ireland is the biggest producer of zinc in Europe and the tenth largest in the world. I did not learn that at school and neither did my children who are aged 19 and 20 years. We are also high producers of lead, but there are many other minerals. As I said, Ireland is a leading producer of zinc and lead; it supplies 28% of Europe's zinc and 10% of its lead, meaning that it is ranked 12th. Ireland is ranked No. 1 for the amount of zinc extracted per square kilometre. In addition, other commodities currently sought in Ireland include gold, silver, copper, iron, platinum, tungsten which is very important in the production of saws and tools, lithium, calcium and so on. Fifteen mines have been discovered since 1960 and five or six are still in use.

The Fraser Institute gave Ireland top rating for policy jurisdiction factors. Is that because we have an easy policy on the payment of royalties and tax? That is the reason I understand, but I will put my hands up if I am wrong. That is my learned experience from watching what happened in County Mayo.

I know that oil and gas are not covered under this legislation. As part of its policy, the Government will be obliged to lay a report before the Oireachtas every six months on the operation of the legislation. I welcome the continuance of that provision as part of the legislation. However, such a report has never been discussed in my time in this House and I will have been elected one year ago, like the Minister of State, at the end of this month. It give up-to-date figures in terms of who is involved in the industry.

The most recent report reveals that "as of 31 December 2016, there were 10 extant State Mining Leases [and] 6 extant State Mining Licences". I know this legislation will change the duplication there. The report also states that on the same date, "567 extant Prospecting Licences" were held by 46 companies. Towards the end of the report, we learn that "the total amount of moneys collected by the Minister under or by virtue of any lease, permission, or licence under [the Minerals Development] Acts was €5,477,575.49". That is the total money taken in. I know that there are separate moneys collected as tax. It is estimated that this comes to approximately €60 million. This report has not come the House for discussion. If such a debate were held, Deputies would educate themselves about these matters and work with the Government to ensure the best return is secured on behalf of the citizens of this country, which is rich in natural resources.

Page 2 of the most recent biannual report lists all those who were involved in mining at the end of December 2016. It refers to once-off payments made "in lieu of Royalties". In other words, no royalties were paid in these cases. It happens that Tara Mines Limited is mentioned on more than one occasion on this page, which states that the company has a licence to engage in mining from "3 July 1998 to 30 November 2023". Among the various "considerations" referred to on page 2 - no royalties are being paid - are amounts of €190,460, or just under €200,000, and of €1,050,000. Each "once off payment [made] in lieu of Royalties" relates to a different area near Navan, County Meath, in which Tara Mines is engaged in mining activity. The royalties vary enormously. I think it would be very helpful to have a discussion on this report, which was theoretically laid before the Houses at Christmas but has never been discussed here, in the Dáil in order that we can see where we are going with the new-found information we have about Ireland as a mineral-rich country.

The Indecon report mentioned by the Minister of State was published some years ago. It seems to have had positive things to say about the moneys returned to the economy from this activity. How do we judge that? In what context can it be judged? What country should we look at so that we can make a reasoned judgment on how best to use our resources to bring in money that can be spent on the provision of proper public services? I think this real debate needs to take place very soon. It seems to me that the Government is constantly left with messes to clean up without any money coming back. Even though the Shell to Sea protestors were demonised year after year, the fact is that every single safety issue resulted from their work on the ground in forcing change and improvements. All the safety improvements resulted from the work of people on the ground.

We need to have a debate in this context on how we can encourage companies to engage in mining in Ireland, while at the same time ensuring we get a return on that activity. How do we judge that? What countries have we looked at to learn lessons from them? While I welcome this legislation, as I have said, I would not be happy that we are learning from the debacles of previous years. Are we going to continue to be left with the mess? I welcome the section of this Bill on cleaning up abandoned mines. As I have said, the Government collected just over €5 million under the Minerals Development Acts last year. That is a tiny amount of money in the context of what it costs the Government to clean up abandoned mines. The non-payment of royalties, to which I have also referred, must also be considered in this context. Who is making the decisions to reach these agreements, and on the basis of what criteria? As I mentioned earlier, the most recent biannual report contained successive references to once-off payments being made "in lieu of Royalties". How is that judged? We need to reflect on what have we learned from that before we give out any more long licences. As I mentioned earlier, some of the current licences take us up to 2023. In one case, the licence will not expire until 2034. I suggest the question of why such long-term licences are necessary should be considered on Committee Stage.

According to a section of the digest that quotes from research, "Ireland is described as being "richly endowed with a diversity of mineral deposits, with a mining heritage extending for over 4,000 years"." The increase in the number of licences being given out is a reflection of that. Deputy Lawless of Fianna Fáil referred to the huge possibilities associated with what Science Foundation Ireland has told us about the reuse of mines. Are we going to learn from that? I think the best way to facilitate that would be to ensure the biannual reports are brought before the Dáil for open discussion. This legislation can be considered separately on Committee Stage. We need to share in the decision-making process on the basis that we have learned from previous messes.

See this speech in context